THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOUSE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 931, 26 September 1910, Page 6

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOUSE.

Nothing could have been more ridiculous than the long wrangle in the House on Friday night over the apportionment of the responsibility for the waste of time that has gone on since the session began three months ago. The country ought to feel pleased, we suppose, that the Government, after deliberately wasting nearly three months of the session in order the better to rush its legislative, proposals through in as, short a fag-end of time as possible, is beginning to realise that time-wasting is a blameworthy thing. 'It is always -from, the Ministerial benches that the quarrels are begun over the quarter in which lies the guilt, and they are . quarrels into . which. both sides of the House can enter with spirit and obstinacy, for the process of timewasting is so much a matter of miscellaneous incidents and details-of procedure that it is quite impossible lor one side to hope to silence the other. Members, do not appear to realise that the'public are very tired of such tactics and though they may read the reports of these wrangles with a oertain amount of , amusement, it is amusement tinctured with contempt.' We'can recall no session during which there has. been so shameful a waste of time by the Government. ... So obvious' has this been that there is no occasion for the Opposition to do more than in the briefest manner possible _ repudiate the suggestion that.it is in any degree whatever responsible • for the present discreditable position. And the only object even in doing, this is to place their protest on '.permanent record.

There can be' few people in the country so ignorant of politics as not to know, that the order in which the business is taken is, prescribed by -the 'Prime Minister himself. It is he.who draws up the Order Paper, and he who gives the 1 Whips , their, instructions to arrange lor_ the carrying on of-,the various discussions. It is the 1 simplest thing- in the world for the Prime Minister, whoever he might be, to keep Par-' .liament engaged for twice ■ three months in doing, nothing useful, for the methods by which he cam secure futile sittings are almost innumerable. The arrangement of the Order Paper during the present session, coupled with the talkativeness and lack of tact on the part of the Prime Minister himself, has been entirely responsible for the waste .of time' that has ; taken . place. .Sir Joseph Ward's complaint that, the Opi)osition : has obstructed business by insisting on its duty of reason l able criticism is too absurd, • of course, to be taken seriously. - But the special absurdity of-it, which is generally.' overlooked, lies in the fact, with.' which everyone ..must agree," that .if '..during the past three month's the - Opposition had sat" silent, matters would have been no further forward at. the'present mo? ment. The Prime-Minister would simply have closed up the 'sittings at supper-time, or earlier: _ When, on one occasion,/the Opposition refused to speak, what/ happened 1 There was a long string of empty speeches from Ministerialists, and a great. deal of angry, protest against the silence of the Opposition. The fact is, of course—nobody; ■really /questions', it—that the Prime Minister has been thoroughly -delighted with the waste of time.' He 1 has not wanted the House to go ahead with solid work. Every day that' is wasted,; from the country's point of view,- is, from .his point of viow, a day gained, since it. means that he has reduced by another'day the fag-end during which he means, if he can, to drive his Bills through a weary House at break-neck speed. The late Mr/ Seddon, who established- this bad . system, never displayed such anxiety to waste time, as is evident in his successor,! .but Mr.' Seddon was a strong man ; and he had something like a definite and popular policy.